Impact of primary health care on mortality from heart and cerebrovascular diseases in Brazil: a nationwide analysis of longitudinal data

Re: Impact of primary health care on mortality from heart and cerebrovascular diseases in Brazil: a nationwide analysis of longitudinal data

Rasella et al's conclusion that elements of the Family Health Strategy are conceivably transportable to other low and middle income countries is overly modest. An intervention that, at scale, reduces mortality for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease, to the extent that has been shown in the Family Health Strategy is one that ought to be considered in all countries - not just resource-poor ones. The impact of this model on mortality, morbidity and secondary care use, that has now been quite extensively described (1-3), should be welcome as much in high income contexts as in low income ones.

In the UK, we have been painfully slow to admit that Brazil and other Low and Middle Income Countries such as Pakistan and Ethiopia have got it right. To anyone familiar with these programmes, Rasella et al's findings will come as no surprise. They draw on lay Community Health Workers to proactively identify health needs, support healthy lifestyle choices, and improve access to health services. But these programmes are nothing like our Health Trainer model, which provides only ad hoc health advice. Instead, they are deployed systematically, at scale and each Community Health Worker operates across all health domains - not just the disease areas that Rasella et al have included in their analysis. The WHO have recommended the scaled use of lay Community Health Workers for all member states since 2012 (4). Rasella et al have missed an opportunity to promote Brazil's exceptional Family Health Strategy and call for even developed health systems to learn from its approach.